Professional Experience:
Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) and Interim Chief of Party (COP), USAID Advancing the U.S.-India Partnership Platform (APP) Activity; International Development Group LLC (IDG)/USAID
May 2023 – Present
Serving as the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) for USAID/India’s support initiative, the Advancing the U.S.-India Partnership Platform (APP) Activity, providing technical and operational support on Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) across various sectors, including health, agriculture, energy, education, private sector engagement, and cross-cutting activities.
Leading and overseeing the review of APP tasks, supporting technical work such as reviewing reporting methods, conducting training, designing reporting tools, and advising project teams on evaluation activities.
Overseeing recruitment efforts and participating in evaluations and assessments throughout the contract duration.
o Ensuring short-term technical experts and evaluation team members possess the required expertise and maintain a high level of performance.
o Drafting Scopes of Work (SOWs) for short-term experts, negotiating their terms, managing their technical onboarding, and ensuring alignment with performance expectations.
Overseeing day-to-day project management in collaboration with the Chief of Party (COP).
Acting as a secondary liaison with the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and serving as Acting COP in the COP’s absence.
Contributing significantly to the design and field testing of evaluation methodologies, participatory data collection methods, data verification techniques, and other technical evaluation and analytical tasks.
Supporting quality control and ensuring the responsiveness of technical assistance under the contract, including making necessary operational adjustments to meet USAID requirements.
o Supporting the design, development, and completion of assessments, analytical reports, and evaluations.
o Editing consultant reports and deliverables to ensure strong writing, grammatical accuracy, and compliance with USAID guidelines and expectations.
Collaborating with the COP and team members to prepare annual work plans, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, contractual deliverables, and ad hoc reports.
Temporarily assumed the role of Chief of Party (COP) from June 2, 2024, to August 30, 2024, and from December 17, 2024, to January 12, 2025.
providing cross-sectoral Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) leadership across economic growth, health, energy, education, and private sector engagement. Key contributions include:
• Assessed the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) credit guarantee portfolio in India, evaluating performance and providing strategic insights to USAID and partners.
• Led a scoping study to explore enhanced collaboration between the World Bank and USAID in India, focusing on aligning strategies, leveraging strengths, and optimizing resource utilization for greater development impact.
• Conducted a skill landscape assessment, offering evidence-based insights to address key gaps in the national skilling ecosystem.
• Performed cost-benefit analyses for multiple economic growth, livelihoods, and private sector engagement interventions.
• Drafted Scopes of Work (SOWs) and developed protocols for blended financing initiatives (e.g., SAmridh), driving investments in health, social impact, and entrepreneurship.
• Designed and delivered analytical recommendations to strengthen economic growth and livelihoods programs, including those targeting Tibetan populations in exile.
• Led the creation of a white paper on Gender Equality (GE) and Women’s Empowerment (WE), examining how policies and programs advance women’s economic empowerment in India.
• Leveraged health economics and social policy expertise to integrate health and nutrition considerations into broader socio-economic initiatives.
• Supported an expert team evaluating the South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP)